Typically conversion rates for online retailers during the holiday season follow a similar pattern Increase once the calendar flips to Nov 1 spike during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend known as the Cyber 5 gradually decline but remain elevated until tapering off as the New Year approaches The holiday season conversion rates for Macyscom according to marketing analytics firm Jumpshot is a good example of that pattern But a few of the nine online retailers and marketplaces analyzed by Internet Retailer and Jumpshot buck this trend in 2018 Notably marketplaces Amazoncom and eBaycom both had higher conversion rates on average Nov 27-Dec 21 compared with their Cyber 5 average For most retailers this would be especially remarkable because most merchants count on Black Friday and Cyber Monday for heavy sales volume and have their highest conversion rates of the season during these five days advertisement However both Amazoncom Inc No 2 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Online Marketplaces and eBay Inc No 4 generate more than tens of billions of dollars in marketplace sales annually and dont have to rely on the holiday sales spike as much as the average retailer Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is the period when most retailers are offering their best discounts of the year and consumers are shopping on multiple e-commerce sites for several purchases So instead of immediately going to Amazoncom to buy as they might normally do during the rest of the year consumers are shopping around during the Cyber 5 This could be one of the reasons why these two marketplace giants see their Cyber 5 conversion rates as slightly lower compared with their pre-Black Friday average conversion rate Sept 1-Thanksgiving and post-Cyber Monday conversion rates Nov 27-Dec 21 Another reason is the number of shoppers going to Amazoncom and eBaycom to price check during the Cyber 5 period at these sites that offer a massive assortment of merchandise The increase in traffic only coming to the site for that reason is less optimized for conversions says Stephen Kraus head of digital insights at Jumpshot During Cyber 5 much of the traffic is only going to visit the sites to see if there is a good deal on something theyre interested in Kraus says Also outside of the traditional conversion rate pattern were craft marketplace Etsy Inc department store Nordstrom Inc and mass merchant Walmart Inc All three of these merchants maintained a similar conversion rate during a large share of the online holiday shopping season Nov 27-Dec 21 compared with their average Cyber 5 conversion rate For example Etsycoms conversion rate average Nov 27-Dec21 was 40 compared with its Cyber 5 average of 41 Nordstromcoms Nov 27-Dec21 average was 44 compared with 45 for Cyber 5 and Walmarts Nov 27-Dec 21 average was 37 compared with 40 for Cyber 5 according to Jumpshot data This is notable for similar reasons Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is when most retailers traditionally have the most sales and conversion To maintain that elevated conversion rate level is unusual Additionally although many online retailers reported shoppers beginning their holiday purchasing early in the season six of the nine retailers and marketplaces analyzed posted their highest conversion rate of the season Nov 1-Dec 31 after Cyber Monday Three of these retailers Kohlscom Macyscom and Targetcom had their season high on the day after Cyber Monday Here are the season-high conversion rates for these nine retailers and marketplaces Thanksgiving Walmartcom Black Friday BestBuycom Cyber Monday Etsycom Tuesday Nov 27 Kohlscom Macyscom Targetcom Dec 3 eBaycom Dec 14 Nordstromcom Dec 17 Amazoncom In fact when comparing the day after after Cyber Monday with Cyber Monday itself nearly all retailers had a higher conversion rate on Tuesday Although some retailers may have a higher conversion rate after the Cyber 5 period retailers still have a lower total number of conversions orders after the Cyber 5 Kraus says Average conversion rates tended to increase after Cyber Monday because the audience visiting the sites later was more qualified theyre shopping online and they need to buy something Kraus says Its more a question as to what theyre going to buy than if theyre going to buy Of the nine analyzed retailers and marketplaces most had a significant decline in conversion after Dec 21 and it was lower than their pre-Black Friday average conversion rate Nordstrom was the expectation with a higher conversion rate 29 on average on Dec 22-31 compared with its pre-Black Friday average Sept 1-Thanksgiving at 23 The retailer had its half-year sale during this period which could be the reason for its elevated conversion rate Walmart is No 3 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500 Best Buy Co Inc is No 8 Etsy No 19 Kohls Corp No 18 Macys No 6 Target Corp No 17 and Nordstrom No 16 Jumpshots analysis is based on its review of more than 160 billion clicks on e-commerce sites made monthly by 100 million consumers globally Jumpshot says US consumers comprise a significant portion of its panel Jumpshot tracks the clickstream of consumers to track on-site searches product page views and online conversion points The conversion rates include mobile and desktop but exclude apps Favorite